Moneyball

Rating:
Summary: A very interesting inside look at the A's
Review: If you have ever read Bill James or Rob Neyer, this book is definately for you, for everyone else, this book will make you take a second look at the game.
As Michale Lewis takes a look at the Oakland A's organization, we are privy to many different inside the game conversations. The reader quickly learns how it is that the A's have been able to succeed while others say they can't, by looking at the game differently. This different look has grown in recent years and will continue to grow as the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Boston Red Sox now have GM's with a strong SABR based analysis of prospects.
I highly reccomend this book for all baseball lovers.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant read...
Review: As an avid baseball fan, avid Seattle Mariner's fan, and avid Oakland Athletic's hater, I am in complete awe of this book. While I don't agree with every one of Billy Beane's philosophy's, so much of it makes sense. When you break it down, it's hard to dispute that it works for him. If every team used his thoughts would it work? Probably not, but that's the beauty of Billy and his team of computer nerds, they made a new way of thinking in baseball work.

Even if you're not a baseball fan, this book is a fabulous read. While he does go into great detail about many aspects of the game a casual observer wouldn't understand, he does it with such grace and elegance that it doesn't get the least bit heavy handed. Micheal Lewis is a master at turning in something that may seem dry to some, and making it a personal, touching story, with fabulous characters and incredible plot development. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It will be talked about for the next few decades for sure, if not beyond.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is the most enlightening baseball book since Bill James' Baseball Abstract.

Rating:
Summary: Could not put it down
Review: I'm a "baseball dad" with both a 15-year-old son who plays HS baseball and a 7-year-old grandson who plays little league. I keep the scorebook and the stats for all my son's games and have been doing so for the last 5 years. One of the other baseball dad's recommended this book to me and said I would like it. So based on his recommendation I bought the book yesterday.

This book is terrific. It's an easy read. But more importantly, it gives you an inside look at the MLB draft through the eye's of the Oakland A's. It's a tale of two schools of thought - the old way of selecting players based on scouting reports vs the new way of selecting players based on stats - but not just any stats. And the book provides some interesting background on the stats of yesteryear and today. For example, everyone thinks the batting average is one of the greatest indicators of success - but this book points out it is really OBP and SLG, not AVG that is the best indicator of runs.

If you like baseball, you are really going to savor and enjoy the inside look at the draft, scouts, and a lively discussion of old school vs new school with regard on how best to select players on a low budget.

Run, don't walk, to buy this book. 2 thumbs up!

Rating:
Summary: Changes the way you watch baseball.
Review: I have found myself dissecting a baseball game in a much different way since reading 'Moneyball'. This book is truely insightfull and interesting. Not just a analysis of Billy Bean, the Oakland A's genious GM, but also a story of the personal triumphs of several "nobody" baseball players.

This book is for you if you are a baseball junkie, a statistical nerd, or if you always root for the underdog.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating new look at baseball strategy
Review: Any real baseball fan will love this book. I inhaled. Built around the the translation of statistics to identify talent that is not fully valued by other teams and game strategy, it tells the story of the Oakland 1992 under general manager Billy Beane and lhow he put it together. A great read.

Rating:
Summary: fantastic
Review: Michael Lewis presents Billy Beane's theories on how to run a baseball team in this very entertaining book. By the end of the book, I was so convinced of the rightness of Beane's thinking that I cringed at the thought of my beloved Texas Rangers being run by someone other than him. Beane's thriving on and exposure of the inefficiencies of the ballplayer market could revolutionize the game. Pretty soon, more teams will ditch the current model based on the Yankees' mantra of spend, spend, spend in favor of Beane's objectivism. Then, hopefully teams could afford to slash ticket prices and people would actually start going to games. Sounds better than anything our pal Bud Selig could ever come up with, but that's another story.

Rating:
Summary: Why we love this game ,from the inside out...
Review: I grew up in Tucson Arizona during the 60's and 70's watching baseball on TV. We didn't have a local team to support, or criticize daily like most of the country. I learned early on that big league ball was more than home runs, and no-hitters. Billy Beane see's what real baseball players on the field see from a General Manager's point of view. He see's the weakness, the strengths, and their hearts and souls. This book more than anything shows you what goes on in the mind of a man whose job is to win games, and do it with as little money as possible. Not worrying about hurt feelings, not worrying how fans will react, just give them the best chance to win everyday. Baseball has become a business in which we reward mediocrity, with a .300 batting average as the high mark, and pitchers with era's 4.25 getting bonuses. Many are paid more than anyone should before they step on the field. This is the only business that happens in. Until owners and fans agree that no one is a super star until they can consistently play at a top level for 5 years, we will always be waiting for the next one hit wonder. The baseball world needs more Billy Beanes in order to survive the next 25 years; the trick will be getting the owners to believe it. This book salutes the stars that never had a chance because of some stat that didn't matter anyway. It shows us how ruthless the business end of the game can really be. Sometimes "gut" feeling will tell you more than any stat. My gut says this book is for those who really want to see what's coming next.....

Rating:
Summary: Moneyball?
Review: I got the impression from reading reviews and snipits from Moneyball, that the book would give me a "fantastic" new behind the scenes view of the A's front office and Billy Beane. The book had it's moments(specifically when Lewis went in depth about the A's "new philosophy" and how things went down before the trade deadline), but the thing I took from the book more than any other, is that Lewis is a master of filler. I got the impression that he went in-depth about the family-life/history of Chad Bradford and Scott Hatteberg because he wanted to make his book a more respectable length, because lets face it, the fact that Chad Bradford throws side-arm, or the fact that he was taught to throw sidearm by his highschool coach/preacher has absolutely nothing to do with the economics of the game and he loosely tied Bradford in with Voros who makes the miraculous discovery about how pitchers don't consistantly give up the same number of hits year-in and year-out(I'm not trying to demean the discovery).

I've seen some of the reviews saying "WOW THIS IS THE BEST BASEBALL BOOK I'VE EVER READ", if that's the case, baseball books are in a equally sad state on par with the game and it's economics. It wasn't a bad book, but out of the 5 books I've read in the last three weeks, it falls in at number five from best to worst. As a baseball fanatic(and self-proclaimed stat nerd) I can't even fathom how this book could possibly be interesting to the average fan or baseball novice.

Rating:
Summary: Not ONLY about baseball
Review: In the interests of full disclosure, I don't even particularly like baseball. However, I found this book absolutely fascinating! While nominally about baseball, Lewis' book is really about how marketplaces place a level of "value" upon goods/skills/individuals/etc. Understanding how to properly measure something is crucial not only to baseball, but to other areas, such as the social sciences or stockmarket. Lewis does a great job at making his message (and the world of baseball statistics) accessable to the average reader. Plus, it is a compelling story! I can't recommend this book enough!